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This invention relates to geophysical data processing, communication over wide area networks and graphical user interfaces, and in particular to systems and methods providing remote access and automated dialog-building for geophysical data processing applications.
Computer-intensive processing of reflection seismic data is the main tool for imaging the Earth""s subsurface to identify hydrocarbon reservoirs and determine rock and fluid properties. Seismic data is recorded at the earth""s surface or in wells, and an accurate model of the underlying geologic structure is constructed by processing the data. In the past decade, 3-D seismic processing has shown far superior cost-effectiveness than conventional 2-D seismic processing. However, the reconstruction of accurate 3-D images of the subsurface requires the handling of a huge amount of seismic data (on the order of terabytes for a single modern marine 3-D survey) and the application of computer-intensive imaging algorithms. Even today, only large-scale parallel computers can image modern marine surveys with the most sophisticated algorithms within a useful turn-around time. Indeed, the use of large-scale parallel computers for seismic processing has achieved such technical and economical success that the geophysical market accounts for the largest commercial market for scientific high-performance computing.
Unfortunately, many exploration organizations have no direct access to high-end seismic imaging technologies because they lack the resources to acquire and maintain the necessary hardware and software. The cost of the required computing and data-storage facilities is still quite high, although it keeps going down. However, in perspective, even more problematic is the large investment in application development and system maintenance that the effective use of these computational facilities requires. These costs are not decreasing, they are actually increasing with the level of complexity and sophistication of the imaging applications. Many existing commercial packages are targeted to run effectively on workstations, not on large parallel systems, and thus are ineffective for the high-end applications. As a result, only the central processing departments of large oil companies (e.g. Exxon-Mobil, Shell, BP-Amoco) can afford to employ large-scale parallel computers for imaging 3-D seismic data. The rest of the exploration industry outsources large 3-D seismic imaging projects to outside service companies (e.g. Schlumberger, Western Geophysical).
According to this outsourcing model, the data are physically sent on tape to the service companies, who process the data with little input from the oil companies, and then deliver the final images after several months. This service model has been historically successful for exploring areas with relatively simple geology, but it has proven inadequate for exploring areas with complex geology, where most of the still undiscovered hydrocarbon reservoirs are yet to be found. In such areas, the data must often be imaged by applying 3-D prestack depth migration, instead of simpler and more traditional time imaging procedures. Depth imaging is potentially much more accurate than time imaging, but it is also less robust with respect to some of the processing parameters. In particular, depth imaging needs an accurate interval velocity function to properly focus the reflections. Because the velocity function cannot be uniquely determined from the data alone, a priori geological information must be taken into account, and the final results are greatly enhanced when geologists work closely with the processing team. However, in the typical interaction between service companies and oil companies, the geologist cannot be involved in the processing because of the physical distance and the difficulties caused by the old traditional service model.
According to one aspect, the present invention provides systems and methods allowing remote access/control of geophysical data processing servers over wide area networks. In particular, the present invention provides systems and methods allowing remote evaluation of intermediate (partial) results of geophysical data processing, and remote cessation of the processing if the intermediate results are not satisfactory. According to another aspect, the present invention provides systems and methods allowing the automatic generation of user data-entry (dialog) displays for geophysical data processing modules by parsing at least part of the source code of the modules.
The present invention provides a computer-implemented geophysical data processing method comprising the steps of: automatically determining a user data-entry requirement for a geophysical data processing module, by parsing an input source file for the module; generating a user data-entry display (e.g. a window) according to the data-entry requirement, for requesting a set of input parameter values from a user; accepting the set of input parameter values from the user; and employing the module to process a geophysical data set using the set of input parameter values.
The present invention also provides a computer-implemented geophysical data processing method comprising the steps of: establishing a geophysical data processing flow on a geophysical data processing server, the data processing flow generating an intermediate result of geophysical data processing performed on a geophysical data set; and accessing the intermediate result from a client connected to the server over a wide-area network, for evaluating the intermediate result.
The present invention further provides a computer-implemented client geophysical data processing method comprising the steps of: generating a display of a geophysical data processing workgroup, the workgroup including a set of projects and a set of geophysical data processing modules, each project including at least one geophysical data set and at least one geophysical data processing flow, the at least one processing flow including a concatenation of geophysical data processing modules; in response to a user selection of the at least one flow from the display of the workgroup, generating a display of the concatenation of data processing modules of the at least one processing flow; in response to a set of flow editing user commands, modifying the flow; after the modifying, sending a description of the flow to a geophysical data processing server over a wide area network; accepting from a user a set of parameter values for at least one module of the flow; sending the set of parameter values to the server over the wide area network; directing an execution of the flow on the server, the execution employing the set of parameter values; and retrieving a result of the execution for visualization.